Brock Turner’s attorney argued his conviction should be tossed out in part because Turner kept his clothes on
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Brock Turner’s attorney cites "sexual outercourse" in ex-swimmer’s appeal
Brock Turner’s attorney argued his conviction should be tossed out in part because Turner kept his clothes on
Original post:
Brock Turner’s attorney cites "sexual outercourse" in ex-swimmer’s appeal
Brock Turner’s attorney argued his conviction should be tossed out in part because Turner kept his clothes on
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Brock Turner’s attorney cites "sexual outercourse" in ex-swimmer’s appeal
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Witnesses at the scene of a massive steam pipe explosion in the Flatiron District say it was like a volcano erupting right underneath Fifth Avenue. “I heard a really loud boom and then a steam noise coming out,” evacuated resident Andrew Glasser told CBS2’s Janelle Burrell. “And we were told to evacuate our building.” Glasser was asleep when the high-pressure steam pipe exploded around 6:40 a.m. Thursday on Fifth Avenue near 21st Street. “I’m just in shock,” he said. Some witnesses said the electricity went off for a few seconds just before the giant plumes of white steam came billowing out of the ground. “Not only did the steam line burst, but it caused a disruption of a gas line, a water main and some electrical power,” said Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. The pressure from the pipe, which was installed in 1932, also caused the pavement around it to crumble. “We saw a good amount of chunks of asphalt,” said witness Miro Bajlo. “There were massive plumes of steam coming out, rising up against the building,” said witness Mike Wynn. “I assured some old ladies, I said don’t walk near the manhole covers, there’s an explosion ’cause no one really knew,” said Bronx resident Patty Marsibilio. ConEd urging anyone who was in the area during the explosion to bag their clothes and to take a shower. There's concern there may be asbestos in the steam. @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/NWW7mKXpCP — Janelle Burrell (@BurrellTV) July 19, 2018 Firefighters evacuated 49 buildings while others were told to shelter in place, including Sunny Agis, the superintendent of the Flatiron Building. Agis spoke to CBS2 by phone from inside the building while watching the steam rise hundreds of feet. “Like lava coming out of the earth, it was crazy,” he said. “The building is locked off. They’re not letting anybody in or out.” Asbetos testing found the potentially cancer-causing substance in the aging pipe but not in the air, which is safe to breathe. As a precaution, the FDNY has set up decontamination tents for crews and for anyone who have been in the area at the time of the explosion. Con Edison is urging anyone in the area at the time of the blast who may have been covered in any debris to bag their clothes and take a shower. Meanwhile, residents and employees in the area that is shut down are now waiting to hear when they’ll be able to return. “I just hope everything is OK,” said Glasser. Getting around the area means showing ID and dealing with barricades, CBS2’s Marc Liverman reported. “I think it’s a pain in the butt right now,” one woman said. “I was just walking up, I live just five blocks north, and I saw the smoke. I work two blocks south of this, so I can’t get anywhere,” said Sarah Anissipoeur. “I’m supposed to be in the building right now doing some maintenance, but I don’t really think I’m going to get down there,” William Aumick said. It’s a blow to area businesses, too. Some are dealing with no power and no customers. “It’s going to have a big impact. We’re really keeping an eye on the ground floor businesses in particular,” said Jennifer Brown, of the Flatiron 23rd Street Partnership. “If many of them have to be closed for multiple days, that’s a huge loss of business impact. We have to work with the city. They have a really great emergency response unit out of the department of Small Business Services. So they’ll be going around and really assessing what the businesses need and what types of resources we can help out with.” Eight people suffered minor injuries in the blast.
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‘It Was Crazy’: Witnesses Describe Scene Of Flatiron District Steam Pipe Explosion
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge was irritated when an attorney for dozens of people charged with crossing the border illegally asked for more time to meet with clients before setting bond. It was pushing 5 p.m. on a Friday in May, and the judge in San Diego was wrestling with a surge in her caseload that resulted from the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy to prosecute everyone who enters the country illegally. “It’s been a long week,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Nita Stormes said, suggesting that the court needed more judges and public defenders. On Monday, the court will try to curb the caseload by assigning a judge to oversee misdemeanor immigration cases and holding large, group hearings that critics call assembly-line justice. The move puts California in line with other border states, and it captures the strain that zero tolerance has put on federal courts, particularly in the nation’s most populous state, which has long resisted mass hearings for illegal border crossing. Immigration cases were light for the first few months of the year in the Southern District of California. There were no illegal-entry cases in February, only four in March and 16 in April, according to the clerk’s office. But when zero tolerance took full effect, the caseload skyrocketed to 513 in May and 821 in June. Those numbers pale when compared to other border districts that have been doing mass hearings for years. The Southern District of Texas’ four border-area courts handled nearly 9,500 illegal-entry cases in the eight weeks after zero tolerance took full effect, though those courts saw their numbers balloon too. The District of Arizona carried more than three times California’s number of cases in May. The mass hearings can be traced back to December 2005, when the Border Patrol introduced “Operation Streamline” in Del Rio, Texas, to prosecute every illegal entry. Over the next three years, the practice spread to every federal court district along the border except California, whose federal prosecutors argued that scarce resources could be better spent going after smuggling networks and repeat crossers with serious criminal histories. In Tucson, Arizona, a judge sees up to 75 defendants a day, about five to seven at a time, in hearings that last about two hours. The immigrants show up in the clothes they wore when they were arrested, wearing headphones for translation. In the McAllen, Texas, federal courthouse 73 people who were cuffed at the ankles lined up in six rows of wood benches. They pleaded guilty at the same time in a morning session last month. About two-thirds were sentenced to the few days of time served. The rest got between 10 and 60 days because they had been previously deported or had criminal convictions. Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney in San Diego when Streamline began until 2007, said zero-tolerance programs are “ultimately ineffective,” saying they boost conviction numbers but don’t have a proportionate impact on reducing crime. “The sentences become much shorter to the point where everyone is getting time served or a few weeks in custody, and they’re turned around and come back in again,” she said. “At the end of the day, the system grinds down to a halt and things start deteriorating.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has held up Streamline as a model, was the first attorney general to seriously challenge California’s position. In May, he announced that the Homeland Security Department would refer every arrest for prosecution, which led to widespread separation of children from their parents. Adam Braverman, the newly appointed U.S. attorney in San Diego, had no room to push back. When prosecutors in California began trying more cases in May, Chief District Judge Barry Moskowitz formed a committee of attorneys and government agencies to minimize the impact, writing that the increased load would cause “strains, issues and problems.” The court has struggled to get people X-rayed for safety reasons, attorneys say. Jail space has been lacking, requiring some defendants to be housed at jails in Santa Ana and San Bernardino — at least an hour’s drive away — and some in San Luis, Arizona, a nearly four-hour drive from San Diego. Court often runs beyond business hours, once lasting until 10 p.m. The U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego said in a statement that it was “committed to securing the border and enforcing criminal immigration laws in a way that respects due process and the dignity of all involved.” The office noted that other districts along the border — in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — have operated this way for about a decade. Prosecutors from San Diego visited Tucson last month for a firsthand look. Defense attorneys object to the new court. Reuben Camper Cahn, executive director of Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc., called it separate but unequal and compared it to slavery tribunals. “They will appear in chains … their cases will be heard en masse,” he wrote the chief judge. “In this moment, all of us — citizens, lawyers, jurists — must seek the better angels of our nature to navigate the challenges presented,” Cahn wrote last month. “If the Court does this, it will surely reject the (Justice Department’s) abhorrent proposal.”
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California, Long A Holdout, Adopts Mass Immigration Hearings
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The man accused in a brutal attempted rape on the Upper West Side appeared in court Saturday afternoon. Desmond Smith, 32, was arrested Thursday and charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse, strangulation and assault. Police said the 37-year-old victim exited an Uber around 11 p.m. Wednesday near Central Park West and 84th Street. Smith allegedly approached her and tried to talk to her. When she ignored him, he allegedly threw her onto the ground, punched, stomped and bit her as he started to choke her and removed her clothing. The woman bit him and screamed for help, police said. “I was looking down from my window when I heard the loud argument and the screaming,” a neighbor told CBS2’s Alice Gainer. “I saw a guy with a girl lying on the floor, on the ground, and the guy was kicking her head. Then the attacker ripped the girl’s skirt and underwear.” A doorman who was working nearby told Gainer he heard her screams and went to see what happened. He was trying to take a picture of the attacker, when the flash on his camera distracted the suspect. “She was on the floor and he was on top of her. He was hitting her, basically, with hand or foot, I couldn’t see that, but also in the way I saw him pulling off the clothes,” Ernest Pjedri said. “He left her and was coming behind me.” Pjedri said the man told him the woman owed him money. Both the neighbor and the doorman called police, but the victim and suspect had both left separately before officers arrived. According to court documents, the woman suffered fractures to her face and chest, as well as cuts and bruises to her face, neck, arms and legs. Smith was arrested the following night. Police said he lived at Skyway Men’s Shelter 83 rd Street Annex, which is run by the Department of Homeless Services. He has 10 prior arrests, including assault, harassment and grand larceny.
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Man Arraigned On Attempted Rape, Other Charges In Upper West Side Attack
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A man is due in court Friday to face multiple charges after he allegedly attacked a woman on the Upper West Side. Desmond Smith, 32, was arrested Thursday and charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse, strangulation and assault . Police said the 37-year-old victim exited an Uber around 11 p.m. Wednesday near Central Park West and 84th Street. Police say when the suspect approached and tried to talk with her, she ignored him, but the man allegedly threw her onto the sidewalk, punched, stomped and bit her as he started to remove her clothing. Sources told CBS2 that she fought back, even biting him. Ernest Pjedri, who works as a doorman across the street, heard the woman scream and went to see what happened. “She was on the floor and he was on top of her. He was hitting her, basically, with hand or foot, I couldn’t see that, but also in the way I saw him pulling off the clothes,” said Pjedri. He said he pulled out his cellphone to snap a photo of the man, and the suspect was distracted by the flash. Pjedri said the man tried to tell him the woman owed him money. He and the neighbor both called police, but the suspect and victim took off separately before officers arrived. According to police, Smith has 10 prior arrests including a May 22 incident in Queens involving a domestic assault. Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-700-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website , or by texting a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.
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UWS Assault Suspect Expected In Court After Brutal Attack